Categories

1. Did you guys watch Dr. Pausch’s interview with Diane Sawyer last night? Don’t hate me, but I didn’t. Well, more like I COULDN’T. I’ve done everything I can to support him and his cause, but I just couldn’t bring myself to watch it because I knew it would tear me apart seeing him with his wife and his children and seeing him trying to be strong and not scared for them and for himself.

The effect of his story though is that for the rest of my life I will look at my life and my problems through the screen of Dr. Randy Pausch’s life. It truly does shift your paradigm.

He’s the next Awesome Burgher and his crown is in the mail. By “crown” I mean all of my best wishes and prayers.

2. Okay. This might be the girl in me coming out, but how perfect was it to see Maxime Talbot defend Marc-Andre Fleury and to see Ryan Whitney Tyler Kennedy (I think it was Kennedy. Correct me if I’m wrong.) defend his captain Sidney Crosby last night?

First, Max almost took that guy’s head off and the dude never saw him coming from behind. Awesome.

And as for Whitney’s fight. The shirt over the head. The ceaseless pounding. Awesome!

Regular flavors range from Rocky Road — with peanuts and marshmallows — to old-fashioned kettle corn. “My favorite is a peanut butter kettle corn,” Genalle Day says. “That was our first flavor of the week, and everybody loved it, so we kept it as a regular flavor.” Others have included Garlic Parmesan and Green Apple, for St. Patrick’s Day.

I don’t want to love this, but it all sounds so delicious!

23 Comments

I am with you on Dr. Pausch. There was an article in Parade magazine on Sunday and it really got to me. The Lessons. I have posted a copy of that on my fridge and in my office and I have vowed to practice them every day. God bless that man and his family. Here is the link to the article: http://tinyurl.com/63tawg

I watched Dr. Pausch’s interview.. I was good til they got to the kids. Then I started crying, and didn’t stop. I’m glad that people around the country are getting to hear his story, though, because he’s such an inspriation!

God I hope this isn’t taken the wrong way. But I don’t think Randy Pausch is looking for our pity. I did not feel sad watching last night. As bad as his diagnosis is, I felt he was also given a tremendous gift. He can make peace with himself and his wonderful family. Make ammends to those he needed to(although I doubt if he needed to). In his own words, he has time to make his family the life nets they will need to continue on without him.
My husband dropped dead at a young age leaving me with two children. I was sort of envious watching last night. They get a chance to say good-bye.
He is making sure he makes a difference, which I think he would have done even if he had lived to be 100.
What a amazing family.

All due respect to Dr. Pausch, I feel for him and his family’s impending loss.

Aside from Eileen, who went through something I could never imagine having to go through, I highly doubt any of you will TRULY change your outlook on your own lives and every day behavior based on Dr. Pausch’s video, tv appearances, inevitable bio-movie or book.

Yeah, we all go through emotional experiences like this. When 9/11 hit, everyone all of a sudden became united. No doubt that day profoundly affected everyone in the country. Albeit temporarily. There was a changed outlook on life, how we treated our fellow Americans… all the trivial things we all worried about seemed so trivial. Now years later, people reverted back flipping each other off while they drive, being rude and discourteous, self-absorbed. People went back to being the a**holes they always were.

All I’m saying is, while his message is true and admirable, if you don’t already share those sentiments, you’re probably not going to experience some long lasting profound change based off of his message, unless you too yourself are facing your own mortality. You shouldn’t need someone else to teach you what’s important in life.

As far as I know, I’m not dying at the rate he is, but I sure as hell know that the most importing thing in the world to me is my family, spending as much time with my kid and encouraging him to be what he wants to be. I didn’t need Dr. Pausch to teach me that.

Think about this next time someone in their BMW SUV cuts you off, or a pigeon craps on your head.

Following up on Howie’s sentiments, and I ask this in a completely sincere and not cynical way, how does Randy Pauch’s ordeal shift your paradigm? I’m not suggesting it hasn’t or can’t, I just want to know how.

It’s an incredibly sad story, but what has he taught you?

I agree with Howie on the point that, for the most part, people are going to go though life and be miserable bastards or happy little clams based on a lot of other factors that were already set in place long before Randy Pausch came along.

I watched the show last night and bought the book today (only $12 at Costco, btw). I agree that he isn’t looking for our sympathy, he’s simply trying to relay a message that is important to him … one he wants his children to understand someday. I was struck by the strength of his wife. As a wife/mother with two young kids myself, I don’t know how she goes through her days not thinking, “This will be the last time Randy and the kids …” But she repeats “not helpful” in her head. It’s amazing to me. Eileen, I agree, they have precious time to say goodbye and I can only imagine your pain in not being able to do so. Kudos to you for your strength, as no one was able to ‘sew you a net.’

But as far as what we learned, I think it’s like so many other things … you know you should do certain things and act certain ways, but you sometimes need a swift kick in the pants to remember to prioritize correctly. If my kid wants to play catch, that is more important than checking e-mail again. And deep down I already knew that, but this is the kind of thing that just reminds you – get your head in the game, you have no idea what’s around the corner. And yes, it might fade again … but maybe I’ll re-read the book and it will come rushing back. I am glad PittGirl introduced me to him a while back, I’m glad I watched the show last night (mostly inspired with some tears certainly) and I am certain I will enjoy the book.

Paradigm shift. It’s really very simple. My problems don’t seem very big anymore when I compare them to Dr. Pausch’s problems. I’m not going to moan and groan even as I face what I otherwise would have considered to be a major problem in life because hey, I could have this family’s problems.

It’s the same paradigm shift I should have when encountering ANYONE with problems bigger than mine, but Dr. Pausch simply has struck a closer chord with me and therefore, truly, my view is different. Call it perspective.

So for my first ever Penguins hockey game I ended up with a ticket to last night’s game. And it was AMAZING. And those fights, superb. I don’t know how awesome they looked on tv, but they were freaking awesome in person! :o)

WWGRD was created by the Blog THEPENSBLOG, http://thepensblog.blogspot.com. This blog has a huge readership and is probably the most read blog about the Pittsburgh Penguins. They even sold WWGRD wristbands and encourage readers to “prank” sportscaster John Fedko.

Although I haven’t yet watched the entire video of “The Last Lecture”, I did read the book and I watched the episode of Primetime, I’ve visited his website and read his blog.

The one overarching theme that runs throughout is that a huge reason for much of what Dr. Pausch is doing is so that one day his children who are much to young to really “know” their father, will be able to get a sense in the future of who he was as a person. Things like what was important to him, what he cared about, what he thought about certain things, etc. How did he end his “Last Lecture”? He said “Did you figure out the second head fake? This lecture wasn’t for you, it’s for my kids.”

He isn’t a saint and doesn’t pretend to be one, although his message is inspiration to many of the millions he has touched some way or another, and far be it for me to belittle what any of them take away from his messages. If someone claims that he has touched them in some remarkable way, as so many have, who am I to deny that?

Reading his book and his blog have given me insight into how 1 particular man and his family are coping with something that kills over 35,000 people every year. If any of them find comfort in his words or thoughts that is an awesome thing. As he readily admits, this is a struggle and not something that he and his wife are coping with “easily.” They’ve been in therapy with a counselor who specializes in dealing with couples in this situation and he’s benefited from that help as well.

Thanks…I wondered what other people were getting from Randy Pausch. Was it “appreciate the things you have in life” or was it “don’t let obstacles stop you from reaching your goals,” which seemed to be more of his stated theme? Just curious.

what I got from Randy was more than just the two ideas. each nugget was worth pondering and incorporating into day to day existence. to prove that I understood his message, I insisted my daughter stay up to watch it because that was one of his nuggets – about letting kids stay up late for “big moments” and in his case – it was the lunar landing and space walk. I felt this way about his entire message.

For me, a tigger (and not the only one), much of his lessons were validation for the choices I have made or of my parenting style which ins’t the cultural norm.

That said, he articulates these values for me in a way that even I can understand my own actions.

I have definately learned to appreciate the things I have in my life and not to allow the walls stop me. I have always believed they were for other people! Randy just validates that.

More than anything – Randy shows us how to live by recognizing our own mortality. I think he offers us a wake up call – more than anything – in how short our time is here – and how – as he gains in understanding his short tenure – he shares the path to live. He calls on us to get there before we reach his moment – the one he is living – while he shows us how to die, if given a timeline.